#(this user voted by mail weeks ago)

[bunabi]

Praying I'll be so busy setting up my PC and playing The Natalene Simulator I won't have time to stress over the election

[mariacallous]

Are you an election denier who’s just not satisfied with the number of conspiracies about Wi-Fi-connected voting machines or reports about floods of illegal immigrants stuffing ballots into drop boxes on TikTok or Instagram? Do you pine for a place to share and learn even more? Want to connect with like-minded election deniers?

Well, with just 60 days until the 2024 presidential election, and with efforts to undermine the outcome of the vote already well underway, there’s now an app just for you—and no, it’s not Elon Musk’s X.

Facebook for Election Deniers

VoteAlert is a new app from the election conspiracy group True the Vote, a company with a rich history of combining tech with election conspiracies only to come up with nothing. In 2022, True the Vote claimed to have evidence showing that so-called ballot mules were being used to stuff drop boxes to sway the 2020 election in Joe Biden’s favor. Earlier this year they admitted in court they had no such evidence.

But that didn’t slow them down. The group has already rolled out one online tool this election season called IV3 to facilitate mass voter roll challenges, and with VoteAlert, the group now wants to give election workers and poll watchers the chance to get in on the action.

VoteAlert is designed to be a one-stop shop for all your election conspiracy needs, featuring a scrollable feed of the latest voting-related alerts, the ability to report your own claims, and even, apparently, a 24/7 hotline.

The app isn’t available in Apple’s or Google’s app stores, but is available as a web app, so people can still join. Catherine Engelbrecht, cofounder of True the Vote, did indicate in online meetings in recent weeks that the apps would be available on the major platforms, but it’s unclear right now when that will happen. True the Vote did not respond to a request for comment about VoteAlert.

Before you sign in, the app asks you to agree to a disclaimer that’s a little different from those of most apps: “It is up to you to use VoteAlert responsibly. Federal law prohibits actions that can be viewed as voter intimidation, including photo, video, or audio recording of voters while inside protected polling place boundaries.”

Users of the app are then presented with what looks like a typical social media feed of text, images, and videos. But instead of lime-green memes about Kamala, Instagram cooking videos, or “very demure” videos on TikTok, initial indications suggest the feed will be filled with livestreams of drop boxes in Wisconsin or reports of Wi-Fi-connected voting machines in Arizona.

While the app isn’t really up and running yet, we’ve got a glimpse into its possible future thanks to test posts from Engelbrecht’s team that cover the wide gamut of conspiracies the group has been pushing.

“It says I already voted by mail?” asks D from Loudoun County, Virginia, in a test post that popped up in my feed. “I just moved a few months ago and went to get my voter registration and address updated. They told me that I have already voted by mail—but I haven't.”

Meanwhile, JR in Kent County, Delaware, claimed in another test post that someone was having a bake sale “trying to get people to vote for certain candidates.” (There is a very clear sign on the cookie table with the prices; a quick reverse image search shows the image dates back to at least 2017.)

Meg Denning, who works with True the Vote, has also posted, claiming: “​​All the machines went down and there was a wifi [sic] connection,” referring to a favorite conspiracy among election deniers that the internet itself has been used to conduct voter fraud on a mass scale.

Though these are just test posts, the section of the app that allows users to report their own claims shows just how focused True the Vote is on promoting election conspiracies.

The app also allows users to indicate their location, precinct number, and whether they are an election worker or poll watcher. It also helpfully offers you a predefined list of possible voting issues to report, including “ballot harvesting or trafficking” and “non-citizen voting,” which are concerns that groups like True the Vote have been baselessly promoting in recent months.

If you believe your situation is life or death, the app even has a built-in emergency 24/7 hotline you can call to report your outrage. “Thank you for calling True the Vote,” the chirpy automated female voice responds after a couple of rings. “We appreciate your commitment to liberty.”

No one picked up when I called.

The automated voice did tell me to send an email or leave a voicemail before signing off: “Ever onward.”

[appreciatingtokrev]

hi! sorry for disappearing, i was feeling a bit down and then i 🫠 for a little while after that. yes, nfsw is a massive no but like you said there are other topics that shouldn't be discuss about. it actually is but a person will either get upset or find it rude, depending on their mindset but i suppose it's both like a double edged sword. those relationships def are treated as inferior but the friendships that turn into relationships are probably criticise most esp if the parties been friends for years but you can't force feelings to come out at an acceptable time if it ever happens 🤷‍♀️ that's true, a relationship need to be stable before progressing more.

it is a bit unfair esp if the newer users become massive fans, there are playthroughs on youtube but from what i've seen, it is a bit jumbled up and all over the place. i'm assuming you must have a lot of weapons then? oh i see, are they both mobile based? fans want a nintendo switch port for GI. it is a bit of a random topic lol. that's true and it would be super hard too, the spellings for my mum and her siblings overlaps a lot, they have double e in all their names. it's been a cool topic to talk about but it's finished now 🤣 that sound like an awkward situation to be in, i hope your teachers never thought that for like signed permissions slips for school's trips 😭 did you guys ever have problem with telling which one is your mail/posted package considering the initials thing. ah my dad and my names spelling are very similar (we have the same letters expect for one that isn't in mine) along with the initials so someone accidentally gave my option of voting to my dad because they skimmed through our names 😂 i did asked my dad if this was planned regarding our names and he said no.

also, i saw a short animated of koko accidentally confessing to inupi and it made me wonder what happened to inupi in the bonten timeline and his relationship with koko.

oh don’t worry, i’m glad that you’re back & feeling better again! <3

yup, agreed

yep. my ex & i tried to love each other romantically and force the feelings, aaand it did not work out lol. in hindsight i’m amazed we managed to go 8 months lmao. funny story too bc we’re both aroace now so it was double stupid. we also didn’t talk at all for 2 years (bc i had them blocked afhjfhg) but we started talking again last week and it’s going great now that we’ve both grown and realised that we’re way better off as friends so i’m not too upset abt our past mistakes anymore lol. anyway, lesson learnt, forcing relationships or love does NOT work out, no matter how desperately you want it to. also agreed, relationships definitely need to be stable to move on bc if they’re not it just keeps getting harder to somehow make them stable (again).

yeah, true. i mean yes.. to be fair i’ve been playing for a really long time and for most of that i’ve been playing it daily so,, hoyoverse (i think i called the company mihoyo in my last reply? they used to be called mihoyo but changed their name to hoyoverse idk a year or so ago but i keep forgetting adhjf) now releases all of their games for both mobile & pc, and i think gi, hi3rd, and hsr are for ps4 & ps5 too? honestly not sure, i play them all on pc. ah yes, the switch port... i used to be kinda excited for it but i’ve lost hope for getting one soon (if ever) bc we were promised one two and a half years ago and nothing’s been done ever since 💀

funny thing my dad is a teacher at my school so he knows some of my teachers a bit & even is friends with one lol so i never really had any problems with our signatures after explaining why they’re so similar. idk abt other places but on the post here there’s always your full name so we never had problems with that. tho i’ve had a bunch of other teachers from my school text me on teams thinking they were texting my father bc our usernames on there (bc school) are almost the same afhjgfjshd

ah lol, that seems annoying

oh i think i know which animation that was bc i think i’ve seen it too! i personally hc that they went no contact or at least barely have any contact even if they’re both not really happy with that (especially koko) but they think it’s for the best. i just think inupi wouldn’t want any associations with criminals and koko wouldn’t want inupi to have associations with criminals bc of him either, so... tho that’s pretty sad afhjggfh but imo the most realistic version of them in bonten

[anticonspiracist]

Oh. Wow. Like literally I never realized that you are THIS dumb and dense. You have written " Interested in Larries Bullshit" right at the top of your blog in your bio, and when someone ask you about the actual issue you just duck out of that situation because you yourself don't have any fucking idea about that. And I genuinely believed that you actually have some brains to talk about larrie bullshit.

The funniest thing is someone asked you about Rebecca few days ago and you replied - conspiracy theorist don't care about facts, so trying to prove reality to them is a waste of time. LMFAO. Now m realizing that you don't even know what THE REALITY is. You are seriously so stupid.

How can someone be that stupid to write Interested in Larry Bullshit in their bio and then say I literally have NO TIME for that Bullshit?? Like really woman, you don't know ANY reality related to Larry bullshit. And it took me time to figure it out.

And let me tell you that if you have created a blog where you talk to strangers and where you have literally written Interested in Larry bullshit, then saying that you don't owe people anything just describes how obtuse you are. But actually you know what thank you for showing how idiotic you are, you actually helped me here to decide that which side of fandom I'm gonna support. And people like you who pretend to know about conspiracism should get your brain checked.

You are so fucking stupid, and I'm publishing your ask in full so everyone who reads this blog can see just how fucking stupid you are.

I guess you don't understand a couple of basic concepts, among them time and also what campaign season means. What you're responding to is me saying that until after the November 8 election, I don't have time to pay attention to larrie bullshit. It is October 13, early voting starts on October 24, and so political campaigns, including the one I volunteer for, have events every day, weekday and weekend.

I have a full-time job that I spent 50 hours per week at, plus I am in grad school which takes up 18 hours of the rest of my week. Any time that I would be using to pay attention to larrie bullshit is currently being taken up by me helping to turn out Democrats to vote in a deeply red district. I am knocking on doors and talking to voters, phonebanking, writing and mailing postcards, attending events, registering people to vote (I registered 110 ON MY OWN in one day on ONE high school campus, the fuck have you done lately?), training to be an election judge, coordinating with election workers, attending protests and ejecting MAGA assholes from safe spaces ....

But no. YOU expect that I should feel obligated to discuss stuff that a woman said TEN YEARS AGO, that has already been discussed to death and nothing new has been revealed? And because I decline to do so, I'm "dumb and dense"? I'm "seriously so stupid"? I should get my brain checked because I "pretend" to know about conspiracism? You fucking idiot, this is what I'm formally studying eighteen hours a week and I've been informally studying for the last six fucking years. Take a goddamn seat.

I'm going to compare you to a troll that my candidate ran into on Instagram. A user by the name of "Baby Maga" DM'd him to say that he was "disgusting" for hosting a Drag Show, and that until that, Baby Maga had supported him. Baby Maga had NEVER supported a Democrat for state House and he was only saying so to make my candidate feel like taking the right stance was politically untenable. Fortunately, my candidate knows how to spot a troll. Just like me.

Me refusing to re-discuss something isn't what made you "Decide which side of fandom" you're "gonna support." You already made up your mind to be a conspiracy theorist. You already made up your mind to troll me and other people. You already made up your mind to spend your time vomiting thousands of words into my inbox over several months.

It's sad that you have to put me down, someone who is positively contributing to society. Cease and desist.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Monopolists are winning the repair wars

In 2018, dozens of states introduced Right to Repair bills. These bills are wildly popular among voters, but wildly unpopular among monopolists ranging from Apple to Microsoft to Google to GM to John Deere to Wahl. Every one of these bills was defeated.

Repair advocates regrouped for 2021. 27 R2R bills have been introduced at the state level. Every single one that came up for a vote was defeated, thanks to aggressive lobbying by an unholy alliance of the country’s largest, most profitable, least taxpaying corporations.

In 2014, a pair of American political scientists published a groundbreaking peer-reviewed paper analyzing 30 years’ worth of US policy-making that compared policy outcomes to public polling results.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B#authors-details

They concluded that general public sentiment had almost no impact on US policy making — but the political preferences of wealthy people and large corporations were hugely predictive of what laws and regulations we’d get.

Or, in poli-sci jargon, “Economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.”

The Right to Repair fight is a hell of a proof of this principle. It’s really hard to overstate the popularity of the idea that you should be able to fix your own stuff, or choose where you get your stuff fixed.

Take auto-repair. As auto-manufacturing has grown more concentrated, car makers have squeezed independent mechanics — as close to a folk-hero as the American imagination can produce! — to the margins.

After all, forcing car owners to use official service depots has huge advantages: manufacturers can gouge on service prices, they can force drivers to buy expensive original parts, and they get to unilaterally decide when a car is beyond repair and force you to buy a new one.

Drivers have a good intuitive sense that this is going on. That’s why, when Bay Staters voted on Massachusetts Question 1 (an automotive R2R ballot initiative) in 2012, it passed with an 86% majority!

Mass Question 1 is a really good example of how monopolists can arm-twist politicians into frustrating the will of the people. Immediately after the 2012 initiative, auto-makers set about retooling their cars to escape the new right to repair rule.

The 2012 rule forced automakers to give mechanics access to diagnostic info from cars’ wired internal networks, so Big Car moved all the useful diagnostic data to their cars’ wireless networks. Hence the 2020 Massachusetts R2R ballot initiative, which closed this loophole.

The 2020 fight over the Mass. R2R ballot initiative was fuckin’ wild. The car-makers ran some seriously freaky scare-ads, in which the ability of auto mechanics to read wireless diagnostic data led directly to women being stalked and murdered.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/03/rip-david-graeber/#rolling-surveillance-platforms

I’m not making this up. The underlying premise was, “We turned your car into a hyper-aggressive mobile surveillance platform that incidentally gets you places. If we let other people see the data we’re nonconsensually extracting from you, it will put you in terrible danger.”

Thankfully, Bay Staters saw through this bullshit and passed 2020’s Question 1 with a 75% majority.

The thing is, people completely understand that they should be in charge of deciding who fixes their stuff.

They understand that the risk of poor repairs should be addressed through consumer protection laws (which also bind monopolists’ own authorized repair depots), not by having the repair market privately regulated by monopolists who have vast conflicts of interest.

This understanding has only deepened through the pandemic year, as authorized repair depots shuttered and vital equipment languished thanks to anti-repair laws and technological countermeasures.

For example, Medtronic’s workhorse PB840 ventilators couldn’t be refurbed without using a grey-market activation dongle that a single Polish med-tech homebrewed, encasing them in cases harvested from busted clock-radios and guitar pedals.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/10/flintstone-delano-roosevelt/#medtronic-again

Medtronic — a med-tech monopolist that effected the largest corporate inversion in history to escape US taxes — argues that letting independent med-techs fix its products puts patients at risk, but this argument is every bit as flimsy as the auto-makers’ Mass. scare-ads.

It ignores three important facts:

I. Med-techs have always done this kind of repair. The change isn’t that med-techs are demanding the right to do something new — it’s that Medtronic leveraged its monopoly to foreclose on the industry-standard practice

II. Medtronic’s own security track-record is comically terrible. This is the company that makes pacemakers that can be wirelessly hacked from across a room to kill its user, whose software update system doesn’t even use cryptographic signatures.

If Medtronic is an expert on any aspect of patient safety, that expertise is certainly hard-won, derived from its long history of lethal patient endangerment.

III. If there is a problem with indie technicians struggling to fix Medtronic products, the obvious answer is to provide service manuals, parts and diagnostic codes.

The case for Right to Repair is incredibly strong. Not only does R2R protect consumers from ripoffs, it also provides local jobs — 1–4% of US GDP comes from the independent repair sector, almost entirely in independent small/medium businesses.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/02/euthanize-rentiers/#r2r

Repair is an important environmental, labor and human rights story. As leaked internal memos demonstrate, Apple’s aggressively landfilling of devices (so customers buy more) is environmentally devastating and creates demand for conflict minerals.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/31/hall-of-famer/#e-waste-apple

The average American family loses $330/year because of the lack of access to independent repair, a $40b annual drag on the economy thanks to monopoly rents collected by monopoly firms.

To say nothing of the impact on jobs: landfilling a kiloton of ewaste creates <1 job; recycling that waste creates 15 jobs, while repairing it creates 200 good, local jobs that can’t be offshored (you don’t send a phone overseas for repair).

https://www.ifixit.com/Right-to-Repair/Jobs-Revolution

Then there’s the food security story: John Deere is an agribusiness monopolist that outraged farmers by claiming that they didn’t own the tractors they paid six figures for, merely “licensed” them on terms that forbade them from fixing their own machines.

Deere leads Big Ag’s anti-repair, forcing farmers to use official parts, preventing modifications that would allow third-party attachments, and collecting outrageous service call fees for a technician whose job is to unlock the tractor after the farmer replaces a part.

This policy means that farmers who fix  their own tractors still can’t use them even if there’s a hail-storm coming and they need to bring in the crop. Farmers — who’ve been fixing their own gear since the first farmer built a forge next to their farmhouse — are desperate.

Some farmers download anonymously maintained Ukrainian firmware and overwrite the Deere software, creating unknowable risk of remote attack. Others have to maintain “backup tractors” they use for weeks while waiting for Deere to fix their equipment.

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/26/1000400896/standoff-between-farmers-and-tractor-makers-intensifies-over-repair-issues

Just like Medtronic and GM, Deere claims that allowing independent service creates infosec risk — but just like its anti-repair comrades, Deere’s own infosec is a dumpster-fire, with tractors across America at risk of mass-scale cyber-attacks:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/23/reputation-laundry/#deere-john

The common thread joining these firms is monopoly: a lack of competition that allows them to extract billions from the public, and a cozy cohort of business leaders who can mobilize that loot to ensure that politicians and regulators don’t give the public what it demands.

American industry is experiencing a wave of monopolism not seen since the Gilded Age, and it affects every sector. Take hair-clippers — a category that exploded during the lockdown thanks to the newly created need for home haircuts.

The clipper market is monopolized by a single firm, Wahl. As I discovered — the hard way — Wahl has designed its newest clippers so they disintegrate if you try to take them apart to sharpen them.

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1380554358824136706

Instead of sharpening these devices, you’re expected to buy a new $40 blade (for a shaver that costs $60 all in!), and throw out the old one — or, less realistically, you can mail them your razor for factory sharpening.

You won’t be surprised to learn that Wahl is part of the war on repair, sending letters to state legislators warning that letting people sharpen their own clipper blades could lead to fatal housefires.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4446374-Wahl-Opposition-Illinois.html

Two years ago, the FTC convened an inquiry on independent repair called “Nixing the Fix.” The Nixing the Fix report was released earlier this month, and it affirms everything that repair advocates have said all along.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/07/pro-act-class-war/#we-fixit

The FTC calls bullshit on manufacturers’ claims about cyber-risk, housefires, and whether getting your car fixed by your family’s beloved mechanic will lead to your murder. It broadly and firmly endorses Right to Repair.

Which brings me back to 2021, were every one of the 27 R2R bills that has been brought before a state legislature for a vote has been defeated, thanks to heavy corporate lobbying by monopolists.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-20/microsoft-and-apple-wage-war-on-gadget-right-to-repair-laws

These bills were voted down after heartbreaking testimony from ed-tech repair specialists who described the devastating impact that a broken laptop has on poor families whose kids are doing remote learning.

They were voted down despite the record, the public support, the climate questions, the food security issue, the human rights issues — voted down to preserve the monopoly profits of a tiny number of firms whose claim to being “American” is tenuous at best.

These tax-dodging, offshoring companies view the American public as an all-you-can-eat buffet, and disclaim any responsibility to the country — while still expecting its lawmakers to defend their interests, at the expense of the voters.

Image: Jcaravanos (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:E-waste_workers.jpg

CC BY-SA: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

[anexplanationofunfortunateevents]

democracy was on the ballot and it won

I am a slow-boring-of-hard-boards realist about politics. I am delightedly surprised when I get what I want AT ALL. Months and months ago, I said that my number one issue in this election was the desperate need to put the brakes on democratic backsliding in the United States. I’m not sure how to process the fact that I’ve started to get what I wanted even before the transition.

There is a real path forward for democracy reform in this country. EVEN WITH an aspiring autocrat doing everything he could to rig this election, EVEN WITH a pandemic raging, EVEN WITH malicious foreign actors still trying cause problems, EVEN THOUGH we still have not restored the Voting Rights Act, EVEN WITH all the structural imbalances built into our creaky eighteenth-century constitutional system:

Voter participation went way up! People voted over the course of several weeks from the comfort of their own homes, or on weekends, or on Election Day. And because people took responsibility and spread out their votes like that, it was safer to go to polling places. That was a huge collective choice to prevent a lot of suffering and even some deaths.

A big part of why they could do that is the enormous number of citizens who rallied to work at the polls so that the retirees who usually do the job could sit this year out.

Cities and states around the country took the time they need to count carefully.

Media gatekeepers, for the most part, had the discipline and the patience to be helpful to users about what we knew and what we didn’t. If anything, they’re erring on the side of being too cautious. This is after weeks of most media gatekeepers having the discipline to debunk a disinformation campaign by Trump’s allies and Russian backers, instead of aggressively participating in it.

Social media companies took the most aggressive countermeasures yet against election misinformation.

The person who got the most votes is also the person who won the election, which is pretty cool!

That is a huge improvement from EVERY PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY. Just in terms of how well the election itself was administered, my only major criticism is that we still did not do something called risk-limiting audits. In the case of an election, audits are basically a carefully calibrated statistical smell test. They’re not a recount. They are a reliable and cost-effective way of figuring out if a recount or some other type of scrutiny should be done for the sake of public confidence in the results – and that makes them a cost-effective deterrence against any bad actors who are considering sabotage. Audits are important whether an election goes your way or not, just like smoke detectors are important whether your building catches fire or not.

But that absolutely should not take away from the fact that we overcame all the new problems that were introduced this year and took some big steps toward solving a lot of old ones – despite the best efforts of Trump and all his enablers. Imagine what we could do under an administration that is helping democracy revitalization instead of aggressively hindering it.

The easiest way for us to make the most comprehensive change would be to win the Senate, which would allow a Biden administration to pass a revitalized Voting Rights Act and restore legitimacy to the federal courts. If you have any time or money to spare in the next few weeks, consider sharing it with the two excellent Democratic candidates in the Georgia Senate runoffs.

We should be realistic about the situation: we’re probably not going to get to do it the easy way, at least, not until after the midterms. But we’re not going to be doing it the hard way any more. The hard way is what we’re doing now. We’re about to get a Department of Justice that opposes civil rights violations and enforces what’s left of the current Voting Rights Act. The intelligence and military cybersecurity units are going to be able to work with the administration instead of around it. And we aren’t going to have to deal with a 24/7 fusillade of lies and voter intimidation coming from the Oval Office. To spin out the “it’s a marathon, not a sprint” metaphor: we’ve been running a marathon uphill carrying forty-pound backpacks. We’ve reached the top where the path levels out, and someone just took our bags and gave us protein bars.

And while we have our protein bars, let’s look around, because the view is as clear and as beautiful as it’s going to get. Donald Trump had every intention of wrecking American democracy, and the entire Republican party had every intention of supporting his aspiring dictatorship. And, while Trump himself is and always has been a clown, the person occupying the Oval Office is the most powerful person on the planet. Actually, that’s an understatement. Since Truman gave the order to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, our technology has grown stronger and our government has concentrated more and more power in the executive branch, which means that every holder of that office has arguably been the most powerful person in the history of the world. Every other holder of that office has at least wanted to think of himself as using that power for the advancement of democracy and humanity. Donald Trump affirmatively tried to use all that power to entrench himself there permanently.

We stopped him. We stopped him peacefully. We stopped him without further harming the many vulnerable people he holds hostage in a hundred different ways. We stopped him not by elevating an equal-but-opposite charismatic demagogue for a two-men-enter-one-man-leaves smackdown, but by building a vibrant, heterogenous coalition and finding competent, experienced, principled leaders who respect that coalition in all its raucous power. We stopped him, in short, by choosing to do democracy.

That feels good today and it’s enormously consequential. It is also proof of concept. It is something that can happen, because it has happened.

Something that political scientists and democracy advocates have been saying for the past few years is that Trump has been a propaganda gold mine for dictators. They use him as a cautionary tale against liberal democracy or even against hoping that things can ever get better: see, even the Americans are no better than we are! Dictators can artificially insulate themselves from accountability in the short term, which makes them ill-equipped to think about backfire. Train your people’s eyes on the aspiring American autocrat, and they can all see his humiliating fall.

To our sisters and brothers around the world, from Idlib to Hong Kong, from São Paolo to Moscow, and along every wide country road in between: this is the only true thing your oppressors have ever told you. We are no better than you are. We are no more suited for or entitled to liberation. Look what we have done. Imagine what you can do.

There’s kind of a false dichotomy going on where people swung from “Trump is going to successfully rig the election for himself” pessimism to “oh, Biden only ousted an incumbent by a freakishly large margin, it wasn’t an immediate electoral college landslide, why did Trump get so close.” This take has set in before deep blue California and New York have come close to completing their mail-in ballot counts, which tells you that it isn’t serious, but it’s also beside the point. Trump succeeded in making the election unfair. If he hadn’t illegitimately put a whole lot of thumbs on the scale in his favor, if we’d actually had the free and fair election we deserved, I think he probably would have lost in a landslide. We did the work and showed up in numbers that were ultimately too big to rig. That led to victory, although not a victory you can quantifiably measure against the dozen or so American elections that were more or less free and fair. That doesn’t mean the rigging didn’t happen or have any impact. It means we beat the spread. As the world’s most prominent train enthusiast once said, that is a big fucking deal.

A government of the people, by the people, and for the people has not perished from the earth. One day soon, it may even exist. That is our charge. That is our choice.

So take a moment to recharge. Enjoy the view. Breathe. We got work to do.

[newstfionline]

Monday, May 10, 2021

Higher Prices Leave Consumers Feeling the Pinch (WSJ) Americans accustomed to years of low inflation are beginning to pay sharply higher prices for goods and services as the economy strains to rev back up and the pandemic wanes. Price tags on consumer goods from processed meat to dishwashing products have risen by double-digit percentages from a year ago, according to NielsenIQ. Some consumers are feeling stretched. Costs are rising at every step in the production of many goods. Prices for oil, crops and other commodities have shot up this year. Trucking companies are paying scarce drivers more to take those materials to factories and construction sites. As a result, companies are charging more for foods and consumer products including foil wraps and disposable cups. And consumers are therefore paying more.

As US reopens, campuses tighten restrictions for virus (AP) About a year into mask mandates, nasal swabs and remote classes, the atmosphere turned tense at the University of Vermont as the school cracked down on rules for social distancing and face coverings amid a spike in student COVID-19 cases. Students were handed hundreds of citations for violations like standing in another student’s doorway or walking maskless to a hallway restroom, igniting a student-led petition that blasted “strict and inhumane living conditions.” “You start to feel suffocated like I’m afraid to leave my room,” freshman Patrick Welsh said in an interview on campus. Even as restrictions relax across much of the United States, colleges and universities have taken new steps to police campus life as the virus spreads through students who are among the last adults to get access to vaccines. Administrators say they’ve needed to act urgently to avoid risking an early end to the semester or sending infected students home and spreading COVID-19. In recent weeks, the University of Michigan punished hundreds of students for missing mandatory virus testing by deactivating their access cards to nonresidential buildings, and Cornell University announced that students would lose access to campus Wi-Fi, course materials and facilities for missing virus tests. The University of Chicago locked down residence halls for seven days and shifted classes online after finding more than 50 cases in a matter of days.

Pandemic gives boost as more states move to digital IDs (AP) The card that millions of people use to prove their identity to everyone from police officers to liquor store owners may soon be a thing of the past as a growing number of states develop digital driver’s licenses. With the advent of digital wallets and boarding passes, people are relying more on their phones to prove their identity. At least five states have implemented a mobile driver’s license program. Three others—Utah, Iowa and Florida—intend to launch programs by next year, with more expected to follow suit. Mobile licenses will give people more privacy by allowing them to decide what personal information they share, state officials say. The licenses offer privacy control options that allow people to verify their age when purchasing alcohol or renting a car, while hiding other personal information like their address. Having a mobile driver’s license will allow people to update their license information remotely without having to go to a state’s Department of Motor Vehicles or waiting for a new card in the mail, said Lee Howell, state relations manager at the American Automobile Association. Industry leaders say safeguards will prevent anyone’s information from being stolen, but some critics argue that having so much personal data on a phone is too risky.

Why an Estimated 100,000 Americans Abroad Face Passport Problems (NYT) About 9 million U.S. citizens currently live abroad, and as the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel finally appears, immigration lawyers estimate more than 100,000 can’t get travel documents to return to the United States. Despite the State Department making headway on a massive backlog of passport applications in the early months of the pandemic, many consulates and embassies abroad, plagued by COVID-19 restrictions and staffing reductions, remain closed for all but emergency services. Travel is restarting, but for American expats who had a baby abroad in the past year or saw their passport expire during the pandemic, elusive appointments for documents are keeping them grounded. “It’s a real mess,” said Jennifer Minear, an immigration attorney and the president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “It’s a giant, multilayered onion of a problem and the reduction of staff as a result of COVID at the consular posts has really thrown the State Department for a loop.” Michael Wildes, the managing partner of the law firm Wildes & Weinberg, PC, which specializes in immigration law, estimates that the number of stranded Americans abroad is in the hundreds of thousands.

Scotland’s pro-independence leader promises another bid to break from U.K. after election boost (Washington Post) First Minister Nicola Sturgeon promised Saturday to push ahead with another Scotland independence referendum after her party gained a strong showing in Scottish Parliament elections, setting up a potential clash with Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Sturgeon said that an independence referendum was the “will of the country,,” with her Scottish National Party and pro-independence allies taking a majority of the 129 seats after all the votes were counted. That will probably boost calls to redo a 2014 independence referendum, which could lead to the crackup of the United Kingdom under the strains of Brexit and its deep divisions.

‘Freedom’ fiestas: Spaniards celebrate end of COVID curfew (Reuters) Exhilarated Spaniards danced in streets, chanted “freedom” and partied on beaches overnight as a COVID-19 curfew ended across most of the nation. In scenes akin to New Year’s Eve celebrations, hundreds of mainly young people gathered in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square to applaud the clock striking midnight while in Barcelona revellers headed to the beach with drinks in hand. Police in Barcelona had the strange task of moving people on after the last curfew began at 10 p.m., only to let them back at midnight when it ended for good.

Putin reviews Russian military might as tensions with West soar (Reuters) President Vladimir Putin reviewed Russia’s traditional World War Two victory parade on Sunday, a patriotic display of raw military power that this year coincides with soaring tensions with the West. The parade on Moscow’s Red Square commemorating the 76th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two featured over 12,000 troops and more than 190 pieces of military hardware, including intercontinental ballistic missile launchers, and a fly-past by nearly 80 military aircraft under cloudy skies. This year’s parade precedes parliamentary elections in September and comes at a time when Moscow’s relations with the West are acutely strained over issues ranging from the conflict in Ukraine to the fate of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

Death toll soars to 50 in school bombing in Afghan capital (AP) The death toll in a horrific bombing at a girls’ school in the Afghan capital has soared to 50, many of them pupils between 11 and 15 years old, the Interior Ministry said Sunday. The number of wounded in Saturday’s attack has also climbed to more than 100, said Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian. Three explosions outside the school entrance struck as students were leaving for the day, he said. The blasts occurred in a mostly Shiite neighborhood in the west of the capital.

China says most rocket debris burned up during reentry (AP) China’s space agency said a core segment of its biggest rocket reentered Earth’s atmosphere above the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and that most of it burned up early Sunday. Harvard astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, who tracked the tumbling rocket part, said on Twitter, “An ocean reentry was always statistically the most likely. It appears China won its gamble.” People in Jordan, Oman and Saudi Arabia reported sightings of the Chinese rocket debris on social media, with scores of users posting footage of the debris piercing the early dawn skies over the Middle East.

Palestinians fear loss of family homes as evictions loom (AP) When Samira Dajani’s family moved into their first real home in 1956 after years as refugees, her father planted trees in the garden, naming them for each of his six children. Today, two towering pines named for Mousa and Daoud stand watch over the entrance to the garden where they all played as children. She and her husband, empty nesters with grown children of their own, may have to leave it all behind on Aug. 1. That’s when Israel is set to forcibly evict them following a decades-long legal battle waged by ideological Jewish settlers against them and their neighbors. The Dajanis are one of several Palestinian families facing imminent eviction in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem. It also highlights an array of discriminatory polices that rights groups say are aimed at pushing Palestinians out of Jerusalem to preserve its Jewish majority. The Israeli rights group B’Tselem and the New York-based Human Rights Watch both pointed to such policies as an example of what they say has become an apartheid regime. Settler groups say the land was owned by Jews prior to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. Israeli law allows Jews to reclaim such lands but bars Palestinians from recovering property they lost in the same war, even if they still reside in areas controlled by Israel. Israeli rights groups say other families are also vulnerable, estimating that more than 1,000 Palestinians are at risk of being evicted.

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Welcome to Pollapalooza, our weekly polling roundup.

Poll(s) of the week

Last week, President Trump sparked a firestorm by calling for the postponement of the November election as the country prepares to vote amid the coronavirus pandemic. And although the president cannot actually delay the vote — Congress determines the federal election date — this hasn’t stopped Trump from repeatedly casting doubt on the election results and exacerbating Americans’ already-flagging confidence in the integrity of the electoral process.

But so far, Trump’s idea of postponing the election isn’t very popular. Three new polls this week found that Americans strongly oppose postponing the election, even in the face of a public health crisis. Reuters/Ipsos found that 66 percent of registered voters opposed a delay, while just 23 percent supported it (11 percent weren’t sure). The Economist/YouGov found that 66 percent of adults opposed postponement, compared to just 15 percent who backed it (19 percent weren’t sure). Politico/Morning Consult also asked voters how they felt about delaying the election, giving them three choices: Postpone the election, hold the election as scheduled but with mostly in-person voting, or hold the election as scheduled but with most Americans voting by mail. It also found that most opposed postponing: Just 7 percent backed delaying the election, down from 16 percent in April when the pollster last asked about this, while 86 percent of respondents said the election should stay on schedule, one way or another.

However, as with most issues in American politics, there were notable partisan splits, although the polls disagreed as to just how far apart Democrats and Republicans were on the issue. In the Reuters/Ipsos poll, for instance, 79 percent of Democrats opposed a delay compared to only 51 percent of Republicans. Whereas in that Economist/YouGov poll, the gap was smaller: Seventy-seven percent of Democrats opposed a delay, versus 59 percent of Republicans. Politico/Morning Consult found an even smaller partisan divide, with 93 percent of Democrats saying the election should be held as scheduled, compared to 82 percent of Republicans. It’s worth noting that the Politico/Morning Consult survey offered respondents three options, which might have affected the partisan breakdown to some extent, as some Republicans might prefer postponement to a largely vote-by-mail election.

Americans were also split on Trump’s motivation for suggesting a delay to the election. Among Republicans in that Reuters/Ipsos poll, 41 percent said Trump’s tweet was driven by a fear of voter fraud, and 21 percent said Trump wanted to protect Americans from getting the coronavirus at polling places. Only 17 percent of Republicans said he was trying to either distract the country from the pandemic or give himself a better shot at victory (another 16 percent weren’t sure of his motivations). Conversely, a whopping 63 percent of Democrats said Trump wanted a delay to the election to improve his chances of winning, while another 19 percent thought he wanted to distract the country. Just 10 percent of Democrats thought Trump’s main motivation was either a fear of voter fraud or a desire to protect Americans from contracting the virus.

Politico/Morning Consult’s question on postponing the election also offered some insight into how respondents want Americans to cast their ballots. The share who desired a predominantly vote-by-mail election hadn’t really changed since April, but the share who preferred mostly in-person balloting shot up to 34 percent from just 19 percent in the spring — a shift largely driven by Republicans and independents. Fifty-five percent of Republicans said they wanted most voters to physically go to the polls, up from 32 percent in April, as did 30 percent of independents, a share that had doubled from 15 percent in April. However, only slightly more Democrats wanted mostly in-person voting than they did in the spring (18 percent versus 10 percent). As for mail-in voting, there was one notable development: Fewer Republicans supported it. The share of Republicans who said they wanted an on-schedule, mostly vote-by-mail election slid from 38 percent in April to 27 percent in August.

And that shift in Republican attitudes in the Politico/Morning Consult survey reveals how Trump’s call to postpone the election could gain traction if he keeps trumpeting it. After all, the president has repeatedly denounced voting by mail, and correspondingly, we’ve seen the share of Republicans who want a mostly vote-by-mail election decrease.

For now, though, the thought of postponing the election is very unpopular. And it probably doesn’t help the president that most Republican elites view the idea as a non-starter. But if the president keeps pushing the issue, don’t count out more Republican voters supporting a delay.

Other polling bites

The coronavirus threat has influenced attitudes toward schools reopening, and a poll from Gallup conducted in mid-to-late July found that a majority of parents of K-12 schoolchildren wanted some form of distance learning for their children. Thirty-six percent preferred a mixed approach involving some in-person and remote learning, while 28 percent wanted full-time remote learning. Just 36 percent wanted full-time in-person schooling this fall. These views represented a major shift from late May and early June, when Gallup found that a majority of parents preferred full-time in-person schooling for their children in the fall.

Teachers are struggling with how they feel about in-person and distance learning, too. An NPR/Ipsos poll conducted in late July found that 66 percent of K-12 teachers preferred fall classes to be remote, while 34 percent preferred a return to in-person learning. Eighty-two percent of teachers said they’re concerned about returning to in-person teaching, but 84 percent also said they’re worried that distance learning will cause some students to fall behind. And only 37 percent said their school district has provided them with enough training to teach in the fall while the pandemic is going on.

A new survey from NBC News/SurveyMonkey found that Americans trusted Trump significantly less on the coronavirus than they trusted their state’s governor, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fifty-eight percent said they don’t trust what the president has said about the pandemic, while just 31 percent said they do. Unsurprisingly, 93 percent of Democrats said they didn’t trust what Trump had said about the coronavirus, as did 66 percent of independents. Meanwhile, 69 percent of Republicans said they trusted what Trump had to say on the coronavirus, and 22 percent said they didn’t.

Gallup recently found that public approval of the U.S. Supreme Court is at its highest level since 2009. Overall, 58 percent of Americans approve of the court’s job performance, similar to the 61 percent approval it enjoyed 11 years ago. Attitudes toward the court also differ little by party, as 60 percent of Republicans and 56 percent of Democrats approved of its performance. This is a stark departure from the partisan differences in public approval of the court roughly a year ago.

Sports leagues have had mixed success restarting play in the age of the coronavirus, and a new survey from Morning Consult found that most fans of football — both professional and college — don’t think the sport should return as scheduled. Only 32 percent of NFL fans thought the season should be played as planned, 33 percent said it should be postponed, and 18 percent said it should be canceled (17 percent weren’t sure). College football fans were even more pessimistic: Just 30 percent thought the season should go ahead as planned, 34 percent said it should be postponed, and 24 percent preferred cancellation.

The social media platform TikTok could be banned by the U.S. government, so YouGov polled Americans about how they viewed a potential ban. The survey found that 35 percent either “strongly” or “somewhat” supported a ban, while 33 percent either “somewhat” or “strongly” opposed one. Another 15 percent said they didn’t know, and 17 percent said they were unfamiliar with TikTok. Adults under the age of 25 — the app’s most active users — were most likely to oppose a ban: Forty-four percent opposed a ban, while 34 percent supported one.

Trump approval

According to FiveThirtyEight’s presidential approval tracker, 41.3 percent of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing as president, while 54.7 percent disapprove (a net approval rating of -13.5 points). At this time last week, 40.6 percent approved and 55.1 percent disapproved (a net approval rating of -14.5 points). One month ago, Trump had an approval rating of 40.7 percent and a disapproval rating of 55.9 percent, for a net approval rating of -15.2 points.

Generic ballot

In our average of polls of the generic congressional ballot, Democrats currently lead by 7.8 percentage points (48.2 percent to 40.5 percent). A week ago, Democrats led Republicans by 8.3 points (49.1 percent to 40.8 percent). At this time last month, voters preferred Democrats by 8.8 points (49.2 percent to 40.4 percent).

[localbizlift]

Twitter screens Trump’s Minneapolis threat-tweet for glorifying violence

After applying a fact-checking label Tuesday to a misleading vote-by-mail tweet made by US president Donald Trump, Twitter is on a roll and has labeled another of the president’s tweets — this time screening his words from casual view with what it calls a “public interest notice” that states the tweet violated its rules about glorifying violence. 

Here’s how the tweet appears without further interaction (second tweet in the below screengrab):

The public interest notice replaces the substance of what Trump wrote, meaning a user has to actively click through to view the offending tweet.

Engagement options are also limited as a result by this label, meaning users can only retweet the offending tweet with a comment; they cannot like it, reply to it or vanilla retweet it.

Twitter’s notice goes on to explain why it has not removed the offending tweet entirely — and this is where the public interest element of the policy kicks in — with the company writing: “Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.” 

Twitter appears to be shrugging off the president’s decision yesterday to sign an executive order targeting the legal shield which internet companies rely on to protect them from liability for user-created content — doubling down on displeasing Trump who has accused social media platforms generally of deliberately suppressing conservative views, despite plenty of evidence that ad-targeting platform algorithms actually boost outrage-fuelled content and views — which tends, conversely, to amplify conservative viewpoints.

In the latest clash, Trump had tweeted in reference to violent demonstrations taking place in Minneapolis sparked by the killing of a black man, George Floyd, by a white police officer — with the president claiming that “THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd” before threatening to send in the “Military”.

“Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!” Trump added — making a bald threat to use military force against civilians.

Twitter has wrestled with the issue of how to handle world leaders who break its content rules for years. Most often as a result of Trump who routinely uses its platform to bully all manner of targets — from rival politicians to hated journalists, disobedient business leaders, and even actors who displease him — as well as to dispense direct and sometimes violent threats.

Since being elected, Trump has also used Twitter’s global platform as a foreign policy weapon, firing military threats at the likes of North Korea and Iran in tweet form.

Back in 2018, for example, he teased North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un with button-pushing nuclear destruction (see below tweet) — before going on to “fall in love” with the dictator when he met him in person.

North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018

Twitter’s go-to defence for not taking offending Trump tweets down in the past has been that, as US president, the substance of what the man tweets — however mad, bad and dangerous — is inherently newsworthy.

However, more recently, the company has created a policy tool that allows it to intervene — defining terms last summer around “public interest” content on Twitter.

It warned then (almost a full year ago, in June 2019) that it might place a public interest notice on tweets that would otherwise violate its rules (and therefore merit a takedown) — in order to “to provide additional context and clarity”, rather than removing the offensive tweet.

Fast forward a year and the tech giant has started applying labels to Trump’s tweets — beginning with a fact-check label earlier this week, related to the forthcoming US election, and following up now with a public interest notice related to Trump glorifying violence.

So, finally, the tech giant seems to be inching towards drawing a limit-line around Trump in near real-time.

Explaining its decision to badge the US president’s threat to order the military to shoot looters in Minneapolis, the company writes: “This Tweet violates our policies regarding the glorification of violence based on the historical context of the last line, its connection to violence, and the risk it could inspire similar actions today.”

We have placed a public interest notice on this Tweet from @realdonaldtrump. https://t.co/6RHX56G2zt

— Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) May 29, 2020

“We’ve taken action in the interest of preventing others from being inspired to commit violent acts, but have kept the Tweet on Twitter because it is important that the public still be able to see the Tweet given its relevance to ongoing matters of public importance,” Twitter goes on.

It also links to its policy against tweets that glorify violence — which states unequivocally [in bold]: “You may not threaten violence against an individual or a group of people.”

Back in June, when Twitter announced the ‘abusive behavior’ label, it also warned that tweets which get screened with a public interest notice will not benefit from any algorithmic acceleration, writing: “We’ll also take steps to make sure the Tweet is not algorithmically elevated on our service, to strike the right balance between enabling free expression, fostering accountability, and reducing the potential harm caused by these Tweets.”

However the newsworthiness of Twitter’s decision to finally apply its own rules vis-a-vis Trump will ensure there’s plenty of non-algorithmic amplification (and no little irony).

We reached out to the company with questions about its decision to apply a public interest screen on Trump’s latest tweet but at the time of writing it had not responded.

On Wednesday night, Twitter CEO and co-founder, Jack Dorsey, put out a series of tweets defending its decision to apply a fact-check label to Trump’s earlier misleading tweets about vote-by-mail.

“This does not make us an “arbiter of truth”,” wrote Dorsey. “Our intention is to connect the dots of conflicting statements and show the information in dispute so people can judge for themselves. More transparency from us is critical so folks can clearly see the why behind our actions.”

Fact check: there is someone ultimately accountable for our actions as a company, and that’s me. Please leave our employees out of this. We’ll continue to point out incorrect or disputed information about elections globally. And we will admit to and own any mistakes we make.

— jack (@jack) May 28, 2020

Dorsey’s remarks followed pointed comments made by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Fox News, seeking to contrast Facebook’s claimed ‘neutrality’ when policing its platform with Twitter’s policy of taking a stance on issues such as political advertising (which Twitter does not allow).

“I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn’t be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online,” Zuckerberg told the conservative news station. “Private companies… especially these platform companies, shouldn’t be in the position of doing that.”

It’s notable that Dorsey used Zuckerberg’s exact turn of phrase — “arbiter of truth” — to reject Facebook’s attack on Twitter’s policy as a straw man argument.

[sheeping-around]

One Month of Sheeping Around: Thoughts and Numbers

It has been one month since Sheeping Around released on the App Store. 10 days after the game was released, I did a retrospective of the game’s launch and how it performed. It is time to look back on the good, the bad and the ugly. It was the first game that I actually released, so the learnings that it brought me has been immense.

Bug Fixes

There were quite a few bugs on release, some of which were show-stopping, and made me release a Day 1 patch. For now, all the critical bugs are fixed, but here is a list of what bugs happened and:

IAPs not working at all: The IAPs would be charged but not be applied. This was the craziest bug of them all, which I got to know from a user who tried to hack the game to get IAPs for free. I got an error report for that, and when I checked, I found the real issue instead. He was the first person to download the game on release, and I fixed the issue fast enough so no damage was done.

Game Center randomly fails to log in 5-10% of users: People who could not log in using Game Center could not play the game at all. I fixed this by adding a fallback to anonymous login, but those folks could not edit their nickname.

Unable to edit nicknames: People who were unable to log in to Game Center could not edit their nickname. I added the feature to edit your nickname recently.

Problems with matchmaking and high dropouts at initial levels: People who had just started playing the game took a while to understand the rules and took a long time to play their turns and also quit midway. So for the initial few levels, I modified the game to always match against AI, until people are trained well enough to go battling PvP.

Bug with IAP price formatting in certain regions: For some places that use commas instead of periods for decimal places, the formatting logic for IAP prices was broken, and showed EUR€ 349,00 as the IAP price, when the actual price was EUR €3,49. This was crazy.

Empty hand: Sometimes people would start with an empty hand or with fewer than 5 cards in their hand. This was due to latency issues with the server, some of the events were missed.

Players wanting to play as Shepherd got Thief instead: Matchmaking now ensures that you are matched only with people who want to play as the opposite side.

Empty leaderboard / Long time to load leaderboard: This is now optimised, by adding a Redis caching layer on the backend for the leaderboard.

Players lose their coins / experience earned after a game: A very ugly bug, caused by many possible scenarios, especially when the opponent disconnects or times out, most of which have now been fixed.

Making a multiplayer game single handedly is hard, and while there were some show-stoppers, I’m glad they were fixed quickly, and not a lot of damage was done.

New Cards

As mentioned in the previous post, there are some new cards planned for future updates. Here’s a sneak peak at one of the new card called “Termites”:

This card works on the Thief’s side as a counter to Shepherd’s Fence and Electric Fence cards.

Effect: Spread termites to prevent building a Fence or an Electric Fence for the next N turns.

Features and Promos

I got a mail from Apple requesting feature graphics one week after release. It asked for banner graphics and Today page graphics (Game of the Day). I submitted them both by the deadline and the game was featured for a week in India. It did not get a Game of the Day, at least not so far.

Unfortunately, India is not my target market, and this banner feature got me just one sale throughout the week. Despite being the topmost banner, it was rather disappointing to see this stat. I expected at least a handful of sales. I even lowered the price to 90% down just for a day, just to see how it performed, and that is when it actually got that one sale.

Perhaps the banner wasn’t lucrative enough, but that cannot be right either, because people did click on the banner and did not convert after landing on the product page. 

The game was also featured under “Pay Once and Play” for quite a long time, and it still is, as of writing this article in Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam. I’m getting a few sales from Thailand almost everyday, where it is still #6 in card games. In other countries, the game has vanished from almost all charts.

Android Release and Pricing

I released on Android two weeks after the release on iOS. It is free to play on Android, but because of lack of any marketing on that side, it isn’t doing so well there. It was perhaps a bad idea to launch as an iOS exclusive initially. Had the game been launched on Android to begin with, perhaps some of the audience could have spilled over to Android and gained some traction there.

This is a learning for my next game. As an indie, the game should be released on all supported platforms at the same time so that if the game gets featured on one platform, other platforms can get the spillover effect. A lot of people asked me when Android version would come out when the iOS version was released, and when it did come out, perhaps a lot of them had already forgotten about it. Attention moves fast in the mobile games world.

Also, a free to play game requires a lot of metrics like retention and life-time value to justify ad spend to acquire customers. Those metrics weren’t high enough for Sheeping Around. It would’ve been better to have the game as premium on Android as well, perhaps that way it could’ve performed a little better monetarily. Also, the paid charts are easier to climb than free to play charts, so that’s another advantage too.

I was worried that if the Android version gains a lot of traction, it might cloud the servers and affect gameplay of people who paid for the game. But now that I look back, I realize it is a good problem to have. I had setup my server to scale horizontally anyway as per the demand, and it was already handling 1000+ players playing per day easily during the peak, it could have easily scaled to handle 10k+ users per day as well.

As for the issue of piracy, it could have been avoided by validating purchase receipts of all users on the server. 

Thoughts on Genre Mixing

Sheeping Around is a PvP card game with a different setting from rest of the PvP card games. Sometimes different isn’t really all that better. Sometimes its a lot about what your audience wants.

Some games mix two genres and do pretty well. Slay the Spire mixed deck-building and rogue-like sub-genres and did really well. The recent trend on mobile has been puzzle RPGs and puzzle PvP battle games, and while I’m not a big fan of them, they seem to be doing really well with the market.

Sheeping Around wasn’t exactly a mix of two genres, but it had one important shift from the norm that perhaps caused it to perform not so well compared to the others in the genre. It was a card game, that caters to the niche of people who enjoy thought provoking games, but it had casual graphics - the kind loved by people who enjoy idle games and puzzle games. So because of this theme and premise, the audience of the game reduced to an intersection of players who enjoyed a thought provoking game with casual graphics. 

This can be proven by the really low conversion rate of the game during its launch week. Even during the time when I did a lowest price sale, the conversion rate only went as high as 0.8%. On average it loomed at 0.3-0.4%. I guess a lot of factors like visibility and the developer’s popularity matter here, but comparing it to others games in the Card game genre, it didn’t do so good.

For the uninitiated, the conversion rate I’m talking about is the percentage of people who bought the game amongst all the people who visited the product page that day.

This was true for my last game as well. My previous game Spellbound, when put up for Greenlight on Steam a few years ago, was a genre-mix of word games and adventure games. When you mix two genres like that, especially when one of the genres is obscure, your audience reduces to a small intersection of players. Especially for word games, it reduces only to people who can speak English well. I had realized this and eventually shelved the game. Perhaps I will work on it some time in the future, but only as a hobby project.

This was proven by the fact that despite the greenlight, the game got around 70% No votes.

Sales

The sales of Sheeping Around haven’t been as good as the launch week. And it will never be, since a game’s launch is like the blockbuster weekend, and any sales that happen thereafter will always be (much) lower than that.

Currently, the game has been making about $5-10 per day. At the current pace, I foresee the game to recover its outsourcing costs in more than a year. Not a very encouraging picture.

Closing Thoughts

While the game didn’t do well financially, it is encouraging to have some fans who love playing the game and give up to 7 hours playing the game each day. 

Cheers to purplesky7836, who has spent a lot of time in the game. He has played 851 games and won 606 of them. There are no new cards unlocked after Lv. 50, so the incentive to play further goes away, but I’m glad to still see the players enjoying the core gameplay and continuing forward nevertheless.

On Sale Today

Thanks for reading so far. If you enjoyed the article, and haven’t bought the game yet, Sheeping Around is on sale just for today at a discounted price of $1.99. Go get it now!

[sunnymegatron]

Sex Toys for Disabled People w/ Andrew Gurza & Heather Morrison - Ep 179

This week we talk with Andrew Gurza & Heather Morrison, the brother-sister team behind the first line of sex toys for people with disabilities, Bump’n. The idea started a few years ago with a chance conversation about Andrew’s increasing difficulty with self-pleasure due to Cerebral Palsy. Last week, the company they founded launched their first product. Some of what we talk about:

Ways the sexual health & wellness industry ignores the needs of people with physical limitations

The challenges of founding a sex tech startup with no prior experience

How user feedback about The Joystick--a huggable, humpable, 3 ft long device designed for hands-free pleasure--uncovered profound intimacy benefits for people of all abilities

How preliminary research lead to a partnership with a leading design expert and a groundbreaking book detailing personal stories and insights about sex & disability

___________________________________

--Submit your BDSM & sex advice questions by email to americansexpodcast@gmail.com

--To support American Sex podcast, please visit http://patreon.com/americansex (plus you’ll get all episodes early, secret episodes, bonus stories from guests, on-air shout-outs, stuff in the mail & more!)

--Get friendly with us on Twitter at @AmericanSexPod or visit sunnymegatron.com or americansexpodcast.com

--Join our mailing list by visiting http://sunnymegatron.com/newsletter

              Sunny & Ken, xo!

____________________________________

Episode 179 Links

Bump’n website https://getbumpn.com/

Bump’n release video (Andrew gives a nod to Steve Jobs!) https://vimeo.com/652219391

Bump'n Twitter https://twitter.com/getbumpn

Bump'n Instagram https://www.instagram.com/getbumpn/

Bump'n Facebook https://www.facebook.com/getbumpn

Andrew Gurza website http://www.andrewgurza.com/

Andrew Gurza Twitter https://twitter.com/andrewgurza_

Andrew Gurza Instagram https://www.instagram.com/andrewgurza_

Andrew Gurza Patreon https://www.patreon.com/disabilityafterdark

Disability After Dark Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disability-after-dark/id1151890990

#DisabledPeopleAreHot Merch https://store.podcastjukebox.org/collections/disabled-people-are-hot

Picture This Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fMCsyhvnEc

Episode 55 American Sex Podcast with Andrew Gurza https://sunnymegatron.com/andrew-gurza-sex-disability-ep-55-american-sex-podcast/

Episode 88 American sex Podcast with Andrew Gurza https://sunnymegatron.com/disabled-people-are-hot-andrew-gurza/

XBIZ 2022 Awards Sexpert of the Year, Sunny Megatron voting open now - https://xbizawards.xbiz.com/voting/XBA-3027.php

Open Deeply Podcast http://opendeeplypodcast.com

Ken’s charity DnD game Monday’s 4pm-7pm PT https://www.twitch.tv/thunderpantsacademy

American Sex Podcast Discord Community http://bit.ly/discordasp

American Sex Podcast subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/americansexpodcast

American Sex Podcast Patreon http://patreon.com/americansex

Updated free BDSM Negotiation sheet/Mini-Workbook https://sunnymegatron.gumroad.com/

  Episode 179 Sponsor, Affiliate & Giveaway Info

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El Capitan 10.11.0 Dmg Torrent

Download OS X El Capitan 10.11.0 bootable USB (DMG File) (15A284) torrent or any other torrent from the Applications Mac. Direct download via magnet link. Jan 24, 2018 Download Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan.ISO – Download El Capitan.DMG installer – El Capitan Torrent download –. Mar 20, 2019 Download Free Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.1 DMG. If you looking on the internet a Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.1 DMG Without app store So, you come to the right place now a day hares with you an El Capitan download dmg file OS upgrade is highly recommended is the latest release from OS X.

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If you looking on the internet a Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.1 DMG Without app store So, you come to the right place now a day hares with you an El Capitan download dmg file OS upgrade is highly recommended is the latest release from OS X. it has been designed to improve the performance and usability of OS X Apple Techfaith port devices driver download. Inc. Today am very excited to share how to free download a full version without an app store all detail and features to describe below step by step follow the instruction.

Earlier this week I was very excited to release OS X El Capitan. The OS upgrade is highly recommended as it significantly increases Macs ‘ performance (which can run Yosemite). However, I did not have a pleasant experience in the upgrade process. I have been able to upgrade my Mac only a few hours ago. This was six times in a row after the MAS download and I wasted 15 GB data on a one-time 6.08 GB download.

Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 Overview

There are many reasons for this radical decision. You decided to download an older version of Mac OS X. Initially, some applications might not (or just crash) work properly on newer operating systems. You might also have realized that the performance of your Mac fell immediately after the last update. Last but not least, if you want to run a parallel version of Mac OS X on a virtual machine, it will take you to install the file of an older Mac OS X in a functional manner.

The 2015 release Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 aims primarily at providing greater safety, efficiency, and reliability. This Mac OS X release is a full package for stability, privacy, performance and file search simultaneously. Many technological improvements along with improved tweaks are made and the desktop is more smartly organized. This is a very well equipped release with many attractive characteristics such as the split view for the screens to be divided as needed. Mac OS X El Captian 10.11.6 is designed to make many bugs fixes possible in addition to dependency and security.

There are a lot of improvements to OS X El Capitan 10.11.1, such as improved installer reliability when upgrading to OS X El Capitan. Microsoft Office 2016 compatibility was also significantly improved. The update also solved an issue that prevented messages and mailboxes from being displayed in the mail. The reliability of VoiceOver has also been greatly improved. With full Unicode 7.0 and 8.0 support, over 150 emoji characters were added. The problem has also been resolved that prevented the proper operation of Audio Unit plugins. Was there a problem with JPEG images in the previous version that appears in the preview in grey and green? And in this update, this problem was fixed. you can also check out the Logic Pro X Free.

Features Of Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 DMG

Great emphasis on security and reliability.

Designed to improve the performance and usability of OS X.

Enhanced installer reliability when upgraded to OS X El Capitan.

Improved compatibility with MS Office 2016.

Enhanced VoiceOver reliability.

More than 150 emoji characters added.

Issue related to JPEG preview resolved.

More improved performance and usability

Enhanced security features

Split screen features

Cursor locator

Improved search with Spotlight

Gesture improvements

Office 2016 with improved features with more than 150 emojis

Advanced preview features

Improved safari features

VoiceOver features

Improved installer

Better mailing features

Faster app switching

Much More………………/

Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.1 InstallESD DMG Technical Setup Details

Software Full Name: Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.1 InstallESD DMG

Setup File Name: Install_OS_X_El_Capitan.app.dmg

Full Setup Size: 5.7 GB

Setup Type: Offline Installer / Full Standalone Setup

Compatibility Architecture: 32 Bit (x86) / 64 Bit (x64)

Latest Version Release Added On: 30th Oct 2015

Developers: Mac OS X El Capitan Homepage

System Requirements For Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.1 InstallESD DMG

Before you start Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.1 InstallESD DMG free download, make sure your PC meets minimum system requirements.

Memory (RAM): 2GB of RAM required.

Hard Disk Space: 9GB of free space required.

Processor: Intel Pentium 4 or later.

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If you’re bored of working macOS Catalina, macOS Mojave, and want to try a different version of macOS. But are confused which version of macOS should I choose and try, accidentally macOS X El Capitan attracts you. So let’s get to know about macOS X El Capitan and its features. Here’s how to download Mac OS X El Capitan DMG file also.

macOS X El Capitan is a stable version of OS X and it is quite different and known as the advanced version of Mac. This operating system contains countless supplements and a variety of work capacities. In this launch, Apple primarily concentrated on compatibility, security, and stability. The consistent updates made El Capitan more reliable than other OS X.

From every perspective, macOS El Capitan is a powerful version of macOS. There are really much features such as numerous new updated components and fixes and updates for mailboxes in Mail, numerous issue fixes, and lots of other which carries lots of improvements for Mac operating system, and a new system font, split-screen view, changes to the mission Control Window Manager, improvements to the Spotlight search, fix mail sending problem. Let’s download Mac OS X El Capitan DMG file.

Related:Download macOS Catalina DMG File – (Direct Links)

Mac OS X El Capitan Features

The macOS Catalina features are ready to use once you install macOS X El Capitan. Then you can enjoy macOS El Capitan features and new updates. The list of features are as excellent protection, performance, and usability of OS X. Problem-solving, and improve features. Provides excel adaptability with Microsoft Office 2016. Improvements for different audio plugins and Voice Over security. Various improvements for Maps, Safari, and Notes. Over 150 new emoji styles are added.

There are also more useful features which are improved like Photo, Safari, and more. Which are only usable when you install and use this operating system. Now we will download Mac OS X El Capitan DMG file.

Related:Download macOS High Sierra DMG File – (Direct Links)

El Capitan 10.11.0 Dmg Torrent Version

Download Mac OS X El Capitan DMG File – (Direct Links)

Download Mac OS X El Capitan DMG File – (Direct Links)

However, for downloading macOS X El Capitan, if you’ve an old version of macOS X, you can probably download macOS X El Capitan from the App Store. Otherwise, you can’t download macOS X El Capitan from the Store since it’s not available there.

If you’ve installed the older version of macOS, then you can also upgrade to macOS El Capitan but requires a few things. The requirement is as at least 2GB of memory and 8.8GB of available storage space. You can also upgrade to OS X El Capitan from OS X Snow Leopard or later on, however, you can also download macOS Catalina DMG file.

One important thing which is very necessary is for the download process, to check your internet connection. If you have a stable internet connection you can easily download El Capitan DMG and the download process will not take your much time. Just download Mac OS X El Capitan DMG file.

Related:Download macOS Mojave DMG File – (Direct Links)

If you have checked and covered the requirements, you are ready to download the macOS X El Capitan DMG file. For downloading macOS X El Capitan, simply click the link below we have provided.

macOS X El Capitan Final DMG – This is the direct link for downloading macOS X El Capitan DMG which is only for Mac users and you can also download macOS X El Capitan DMG from Windows or Linux. This is download Mac OS X El Capitan DMG file.

You can download this file as easy as clicking on the link and this file isn’t available on the App Store as you typically search for macOS X El Capitan. In terms of installing, there are no specific requirements so after you’ve the file, you can install it instantly.

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The reason OS X El Capitan is still in approach for Mac users. That’s not because it’s useful, but its also a way for unsupported Macs to download and install this version since they can’t install macOS Catalina and newer versions. But if your running macOS Catalina, macOS Mojave, or macOS High Sierra so you can easily download and install macOS X El Capitan on your Mac with download Mac OS X El Capitan DMG file.

Install Mac OS X El Capitan

With these up points, Mac OS X El Capitan might have made the idea of how much useful still it is like Windows 7. Though Windows stopped support for Windows 7, Windows users still like and install it as backup and even as their actual operating system to work. That’s because it’s fast, easy and doesn’t require much power, resource, high amount of disk space and other resources.

Related:How to Install macOS Catalina on VMware on Windows PC

After finding the file, if you’re going to install Mac OS X El Capitan on your Mac, take a backup of your personal files and folders. Once you’ve that, simply head to the installation and no need to worry more. This is the direct link of the Mac OS X El Capitan DMG file. As soon as you click the link, it will start the process.

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I hope you’ve a better perspective of El Capitan now and I hope the file is approached to you with ease. We try hard to provide the most but easiest to serve services and never upset anyone. That was download Mac OS X El Capitan DMG file.

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THE POINT OF PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES, A LOT OF USERS, THEY CAN CERTAINLY HELP THEIR COMPETITORS

In a language with infix syntax, there's a good chance it will hit another nucleus. I suspect harder fields may be better sources, because to attack hard problems you need powerful solvents. They don't define what evil is, but one thing I would really love to do, short of AI, to automate this process? And that is just what tends to happen. Steve and Alexis auctioned off their old laptops for charity, I bought them for the Y Combinator application that would help us discover more people like him. The kind of filters I'm optimistic about are ones that affect you personally. It's not merely true that organizations dislike the idea of depending on individual genius, it's a vote of no confidence. How did things get this way?

Maybe this will change. I had some more honest motives as well. Fortunately the statistical approach is not usually the first one people try when they write spam filters. But it should help. Power is shifting from the people who used to do literary criticism have been edging Kantward, under new names like literary theory, critical theory, and when you're not used to competitors you magnify them into monsters. You can sit down and consciously come up with an idea for something people want is so much harder than making money from it. That's not quite the same thing for me, and moreover discovered of a lot of the most egregious spam indicators.

One reason to launch early, to understand your users. The most intriguing thing about this theory, if it's right, is that you ruin your reputation. It's almost the definition of an organization not to. He completely rewrites the program several times; that wouldn't be justifiable for an official project, but because they want to do it. You'll either end up rich, in which case problem solved, or the startup will get bought, in which case problem solved, or the startup will get bought, in which case it it will start to suck to work there and it will take some effort to make it as startup founders if they wanted. Subject free FREE! 94% of the top 20 YC companies by valuation have the. In a sense, they are.

Whereas if you're writing code to make it that far and then get that done as soon as possible. But more likely you'll find that implementing a working subset is both good for morale and helps you see more clearly what the rest should do. Now he's cofounder of a startup is to have a piratical gleam in their eye. Too little money means not enough to stop the mail from Egypt got nailed because the uppercase text made it look to the filter like a Nigerian spam. The patent pledge doesn't fix every problem with patents. Which means they're inevitable. Another probably even worse obstacle is that one has higher standards. It is not found in nature. This time the evidence is a mix of good and bad. Knowing we have to do is make great programs. If an idea is a blueprint, but a lot of people in the Valley.

It couldn't be any other way. Simple as it is, this explanation predicts, or at least language implementors, like to write compilers that generate fast code. It seems like the type that matters most is imagination. Why? I picked that example at random, but I didn't learn any magical truths compared to which everything else was mere domain knowledge. Fake stuff that matters usually has a sharp peak of seeming to matter. But I think the odds are better than 50-50 that the Windows killer—or more accurately, Windows transcender—will immediately reply that you'd be competing with Microsoft, that you couldn't give people the kind of people who could have made it, if it was not too expensive. A Plan for Spam I hadn't had any, and I completely agree with him. I was only going to use the stove at my mother's house a couple weeks ago.

And surprisingly often they succeed. It's not just that one's brain is less malleable. You're going to hit a lot of hackers could do this—that it must be hard by how few startups do it. 01491078 guarantee 0. Basically, I had to show for myself were a few thousand lines of macros? So make a list and try to buy some. So what was this mysterious work experience and why did I need it? Though the most successful startups seem to have begun by trying to solve problems you don't understand, you're hosed.

There is a whole class of dubious business propositions involving less developed countries, and these are the ones likely to succeed in startups. 033600237 programming 0. Write rereadable code. Most people could do better. I spend a lot of what looks like work. And there is a big bias toward writing the application in the same position as a big company: the pay's low but you spend most of your people will be employees rather than founders. So now there are two kinds of spams I have trouble filtering are those from companies in e. What would make them say wow? And people with that attitude are the ones that succeed.

So as of this writing few startups spend too much. Nearly all wanted advice about dealing with future investors: how much money should they take and what kind of terms should they expect? As in science, the hard part is not answering questions but asking them: the hard part is seeing something new that users lack. But that's not the route to intelligence. For example, in the summer and one in winter. The danger is to companies in the current batch have the. And understanding your users. The statistical approach is fairly robust, and can tolerate quite a lot of Lisp's unpopularity is simply due to having an unfamiliar syntax. In a pinch they can do whatever's required themselves. 2% false positives. One thing we were curious about this summer was where these groups would need help. It's something that can be incrementally expanded into the whole project, and then you realize the window has closed.

[foxde503]

Download Mac Os X Mail

4.8/5(52 votes )

Set up Exchange account access using Mac OS X 10.10 or later. If you're running Mac OS X version 10.10 or later, follow these steps to set up an Exchange email account: Open Mail, and then do one of the following: If you've never used Mail to set up an email account, the Welcome to Mail page opens. Set up Exchange account access using Mac OS X 10.10 or later. If you're running Mac OS X version 10.10 or later, follow these steps to set up an Exchange email account: Open Mail, and then do one of the following: If you've never used Mail to set up an email account, the Welcome to Mail. If it’s OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion that you need you can buy it for £19.99 here US or here UK As with Lion, Apple will send you a download code to use on the Mac App Store, so you will need to be.

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If you looking on the internet a Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.1 DMG Without app store So, you come to the right place now a day hares with you an El Capitan download dmg file OS upgrade is highly recommended is the latest release from OS X. it has been designed to improve the performance and usability of OS X Apple Inc. Today am very excited to share how to free download a full version without an app store all detail and features to describe below step by step follow the instruction.

Earlier this week I was very excited to release OS X El Capitan. The OS upgrade is highly recommended as it significantly increases Macs ‘ performance (which can run Yosemite). However, I did not have a pleasant experience in the upgrade process. I have been able to upgrade my Mac only a few hours ago. This was six times in a row after the MAS download and I wasted 15 GB data on a one-time 6.08 GB download.

Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 Overview

There are many reasons for this radical decision. You decided to download an older version of Mac OS X. Initially, some applications might not (or just crash) work properly on newer operating systems. You might also have realized that the performance of your Mac fell immediately after the last update. Last but not least, if you want to run a parallel version of Mac OS X on a virtual machine, it will take you to install the file of an older Mac OS X in a functional manner.

The 2015 release Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 aims primarily at providing greater safety, efficiency, and reliability. This Mac OS X release is a full package for stability, privacy, performance and file search simultaneously. Many technological improvements along with improved tweaks are made and the desktop is more smartly organized. This is a very well equipped release with many attractive characteristics such as the split view for the screens to be divided as needed. Mac OS X El Captian 10.11.6 is designed to make many bugs fixes possible in addition to dependency and security.

There are a lot of improvements to OS X El Capitan 10.11.1, such as improved installer reliability when upgrading to OS X El Capitan. Microsoft Office 2016 compatibility was also significantly improved. The update also solved an issue that prevented messages and mailboxes from being displayed in the mail. The reliability of VoiceOver has also been greatly improved. With full Unicode 7.0 and 8.0 support, over 150 emoji characters were added. The problem has also been resolved that prevented the proper operation of Audio Unit plugins. Was there a problem with JPEG images in the previous version that appears in the preview in grey and green? And in this update, this problem was fixed. you can also check out the Logic Pro X Free.

Features Of Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 DMG

Great emphasis on security and reliability.

Designed to improve the performance and usability of OS X.

Enhanced installer reliability when upgraded to OS X El Capitan.

Improved compatibility with MS Office 2016.

Enhanced VoiceOver reliability.

More than 150 emoji characters added.

Issue related to JPEG preview resolved.

More improved performance and usability

Enhanced security features

Split screen features

Cursor locator

Improved search with Spotlight

Gesture improvements

Office 2016 with improved features with more than 150 emojis

Advanced preview features

Improved safari features

VoiceOver features

Improved installer

Better mailing features

Faster app switching

Much More………………/

Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.1 InstallESD DMG Technical Setup Details

Software Full Name: Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.1 InstallESD DMG

Setup File Name: Install_OS_X_El_Capitan.app.dmg

Full Setup Size: 5.7 GB

Setup Type: Offline Installer / Full Standalone Setup

Compatibility Architecture: 32 Bit (x86) / 64 Bit (x64)

Latest Version Release Added On: 30th Oct 2015

Developers: Mac OS X El Capitan Homepage

System Requirements For Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.1 InstallESD DMG

Before you start Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.1 InstallESD DMG free download, make sure your PC meets minimum system requirements.

Memory (RAM): 2GB of RAM required.

Hard Disk Space: 9GB of free space required.

Processor: Intel Pentium 4 or later.

Mac OS El Capitan 10.11.1 DMG Free Download

So, you’ve decided to download an older version of Mac OS X. There are many reasons that could point you to this radical decision. To begin with, some of your apps may not be working properly (or simply crash) on newer operating systems. Also, you may have noticed your Mac’s performance went down right after the last update. Finally, if you want to run a parallel copy of Mac OS X on a virtual machine, you too will need a working installation file of an older Mac OS X. Further down we’ll explain where to get one and what problems you may face down the road.

A list of all Mac OS X versions

We’ll be repeatedly referring to these Apple OS versions below, so it’s good to know the basic macOS timeline.

Cheetah 10.0Puma 10.1Jaguar 10.2Panther 10.3Tiger 10.4Leopard 10.5Snow Leopard 10.6Lion 10.7Mountain Lion 10.8Mavericks 10.9Yosemite 10.10El Capitan 10.11Sierra 10.12High Sierra 10.13Mojave 10.14Catalina 10.15

STEP 1. Prepare your Mac for installation

Given your Mac isn’t new and is filled with data, you will probably need enough free space on your Mac. This includes not just space for the OS itself but also space for other applications and your user data. One more argument is that the free space on your disk translates into virtual memory so your apps have “fuel” to operate on. The chart below tells you how much free space is needed.

Note, that it is recommended that you install OS on a clean drive. Next, you will need enough disk space available, for example, to create Recovery Partition. Here are some ideas to free up space on your drive:

Uninstall large unused apps

Empty Trash Bin and Downloads

Locate the biggest files on your computer:

Go to Finder > All My Files > Arrange by size Then you can move your space hoggers onto an external drive or a cloud storage. If you aren’t comfortable with cleaning the Mac manually, there are some nice automatic “room cleaners”. Our favorite is CleanMyMac as it’s most simple to use of all. It deletes system junk, old broken apps, and the rest of hidden junk on your drive.

Download CleanMyMac for OS 10.4 - 10.8 (free version)

Download CleanMyMac for OS 10.9 (free version)

Download CleanMyMac for OS 10.10 - 10.14 (free version)

STEP 2. Get a copy of Mac OS X download

Normally, it is assumed that updating OS is a one-way road. That’s why going back to a past Apple OS version is problematic. The main challenge is to download the OS installation file itself, because your Mac may already be running a newer version. If you succeed in downloading the OS installation, your next step is to create a bootable USB or DVD and then reinstall the OS on your computer.

How to download older Mac OS X versions via the App Store

If you once had purchased an old version of Mac OS X from the App Store, open it and go to the Purchased tab. There you’ll find all the installers you can download. However, it doesn’t always work that way. The purchased section lists only those operating systems that you had downloaded in the past. But here is the path to check it:

Click the App Store icon.

Click Purchases in the top menu.

Scroll down to find the preferred OS X version.

Click Download.

Free Download Mac Os X 10.4

This method allows you to download Mavericks and Yosemite by logging with your Apple ID — only if you previously downloaded them from the Mac App Store.

Without App Store: Download Mac OS version as Apple Developer

If you are signed with an Apple Developer account, you can get access to products that are no longer listed on the App Store. If you desperately need a lower OS X version build, consider creating a new Developer account among other options. The membership cost is $99/year and provides a bunch of perks unavailable to ordinary users.

Nevertheless, keep in mind that if you visit developer.apple.com/downloads, you can only find 10.3-10.6 OS X operating systems there. Newer versions are not available because starting Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.7, the App Store has become the only source of updating Apple OS versions.

Purchase an older version of Mac operating system

You can purchase a boxed or email version of past Mac OS X directly from Apple. Both will cost you around $20. For the reason of being rather antiquated, Snow Leopard and earlier Apple versions can only be installed from DVD.

Buy a boxed edition of Snow Leopard 10.6 Get an email copy of Lion 10.7 Get an email copy of Mountain Lion 10.8

The email edition comes with a special download code you can use for the Mac App Store. Note, that to install the Lion or Mountain Lion, your Mac needs to be running Snow Leopard so you can install the newer OS on top of it.

How to get macOS El Capitan download

If you are wondering if you can run El Capitan on an older Mac, rejoice as it’s possible too. But before your Mac can run El Capitan it has to be updated to OS X 10.6.8. So, here are main steps you should take:

1. Install Snow Leopard from install DVD. 2. Update to 10.6.8 using Software Update. 3. Download El Capitan here.

“I can’t download an old version of Mac OS X”

If you have a newer Mac, there is no physical option to install Mac OS versions older than your current Mac model. For instance, if your MacBook was released in 2014, don’t expect it to run any OS released prior of that time, because older Apple OS versions simply do not include hardware drivers for your Mac.

But as it often happens, workarounds are possible. There is still a chance to download the installation file if you have an access to a Mac (or virtual machine) running that operating system. For example, to get an installer for Lion, you may ask a friend who has Lion-operated Mac or, once again, set up a virtual machine running Lion. Then you will need to prepare an external drive to download the installation file using OS X Utilities.

After you’ve completed the download, the installer should launch automatically, but you can click Cancel and copy the file you need. Below is the detailed instruction how to do it.

STEP 3. Install older OS X onto an external drive

The following method allows you to download Mac OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks.

Download Mac Os X Mavericks Iso

Start your Mac holding down Command + R.

Prepare a clean external drive (at least 10 GB of storage).

Within OS X Utilities, choose Reinstall OS X.

Select external drive as a source.

Enter your Apple ID.

Now the OS should start downloading automatically onto the external drive. After the download is complete, your Mac will prompt you to do a restart, but at this point, you should completely shut it down. Now that the installation file is “captured” onto your external drive, you can reinstall the OS, this time running the file on your Mac.

Boot your Mac from your standard drive.

Connect the external drive.

Go to external drive > OS X Install Data.

https://foxde503.tumblr.com/post/657205584848945152/dj-software-mac-free-download-full-version. Locate InstallESD.dmg disk image file — this is the file you need to reinstall Lion OS X. The same steps are valid for Mountain Lion and Mavericks.

How to downgrade a Mac running later macOS versions

If your Mac runs macOS Sierra 10.12 or macOS High Sierra 10.13, it is possible to revert it to the previous system if you are not satisfied with the experience. You can do it either with Time Machine or by creating a bootable USB or external drive. Instruction to downgrade from macOS Sierra

Instruction to downgrade from macOS High Sierra

Instruction to downgrade from macOS Mojave

Instruction to downgrade from macOS Catalina

Before you do it, the best advice is to back your Mac up so your most important files stay intact. In addition to that, it makes sense to clean up your Mac from old system junk files and application leftovers. The easiest way to do it is to run CleanMyMac X on your machine (download it for free here).

Visit your local Apple Store to download older OS X version

If none of the options to get older OS X worked, pay a visit to nearest local Apple Store. They should have image installations going back to OS Leopard and earlier. You can also ask their assistance to create a bootable USB drive with the installation file. So here you are. We hope this article has helped you to download an old version of Mac OS X. Below are a few more links you may find interesting.

Mac Os X Installer Download

These might also interest you:

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UK watchdog eyeing PM Boris Johnson’s Facebook ads data grab

The online campaigning activities of the UK’s new prime minister, Boris Johnson, have already caught the eye of the country’s data protection watchdog.

Responding to concerns about the scope of data processing set out in the Conservative Party’s Privacy Policy being flagged to it by a Twitter user, the Information Commissioner’s Office replied that: “This is something we are aware of and we are making enquiries.”

Hi Nick, this is something we are aware of and we are making enquiries.

— ICO (@ICOnews) August 2, 2019

The Privacy Policy is currently being attached to an online call to action that ask Brits to tell the party what the most “important issue” to them and their family is, alongside submitting their personal data.

Anyone sending their contact details to the party is also asked to pick from a pre-populated list of 18 issues the three most important to them. The list runs the gamut from the National Health Service to brexit, terrorism, the environment, housing, racism and animal welfare, to name a few. The online form also asks responders to select from a list how they voted at the last General Election — to help make the results “representative”. A final question asks which party they would vote for if a General Election were called today.

Speculation is rife in the UK right now that Johnson, who only became PM two weeks ago, is already preparing for a general election. His minority government has been reduced to a majority of just one MP after the party lost a by-election to the Liberal Democrats last week, even as an October 31 brexit-related deadline fast approaches.

People who submit their personal data to the Conservative’s online survey are also asked to share it with friends with “strong views about the issues”, via social sharing buttons for Facebook and Twitter or email.

“By clicking Submit, I agree to the Conservative Party using the information I provide to keep me updated via email, online advertisements and direct mail about the Party’s campaigns and opportunities to get involved,” runs a note under the initial ‘submit — and see more’ button, which also links to the Privacy Policy “for more information”.

If you click through to the Privacy Policy will find a laundry list of examples of types of data the party says it may collect about you — including what it describes as “opinions on topical issues”; “family connections”; “IP address, cookies and other technical information that you may share when you interact with our website”; and “commercially available data – such as consumer, lifestyle, household and behavioural data”.

“We may also collect special categories of information such as: Political Opinions; Voting intentions; Racial or ethnic origin; Religious views,” it further notes, and it goes on to claim its legal basis for processing this type of sensitive data is for supporting and promoting “democratic engagement and our legitimate interest to understand the electorate and identify Conservative supporters”.

Third party sources for acquiring data to feed its political campaigning activity listed in the policy include “social media platforms, where you have made the information public, or you have made the information available in a social media forum run by the Party” and “commercial organisations”, as well as “publicly accessible sources or other public records”.

“We collect data with the intention of using it primarily for political activities,” the policy adds, without specifying examples of what else people’s data might be used for.

It goes on to state that harvested personal data will be combined with other sources of data (including commercially available data) to profile voters — and “make a prediction about your lifestyle and habits”.

This processing will in turn be used to determine whether or not to send a voter campaign materials and, if so, to tailor the messages contained within it. 

In a nutshell this is describing social media microtargeting, such as Facebook ads, but for political purposes; a still unregulated practice that the UK’s information commissioner warned a year ago risks undermining trust in democracy.

Last year Elizabeth Denham went so far as to call for an ‘ethical pause’ in the use of microtargeting tools for political campaigning purposes. But, a quick glance at Facebook’s Ad Library Archive — which it launched in response to concerns about the lack of transparency around political ads on its platform, saying it will imprints of ads sent by political parties for up to seven years — the polar opposite has happened.

Since last year’s warning about democratic processes being undermined by big data mining social media platforms, the ICO has also warned that behavioral ad targeting does not comply with European privacy law. (Though it said it will give the industry time to amend its practices rather than step in to protect people’s rights right now.)

Denham has also been calling for a code of conduct to ensure voters understand how and why they’re being targeted with customized political messages, telling a parliamentary committee enquiry investigating online disinformation early last year that the use of such tools “may have got ahead of where the law is” — and that the chain of entities involved in passing around voters’ data for the purposes of profiling is “much too opaque”.

“I think it might be time for a code of conduct so that everybody is on a level playing field and knows what the rules are,” she said in March 2018, adding that the use of analytics and algorithms to make decisions about the microtargeting of voters “might not have transparency and the law behind them.”

The DCMS later urged government to fast-track changes to electoral law to reflect the use of powerful new voter targeting technologies — including calling for a total ban on microtargeting political ads at so-called ‘lookalike’ audiences online.

The government, then led by Theresa May, gave little heed to the committee’s recommendations.

And from the moment he arrived in Number 10 Downing Street last month, after winning a leadership vote of the Conservative Party’s membership, new prime minister Johnson began running scores of Facebook ads to test voter opinion.

Sky News reported that the Conservative Party ran 280 ads on Facebook platforms on the PM’s first full day in office. At the time of writing the party is still ploughing money into Facebook ads, per Facebook’s Ad Library Archive — shelling out £25,270 in the past seven days alone to run 2,464 ads, per Facebook’s Ad Library Report, which makes it by far the biggest UK advertiser by spend for the period.

The Tories’ latest crop of Facebook ads contain another call to action — this time regarding a Johnson pledge to put 20,000 more police officers on the streets. Any Facebook users who clicks the embedded link is redirected to a Conservative Party webpage described as a ‘New police locator’, which informs them: “We’re recruiting 20,000 new police officers, starting right now. Want to see more police in your area? Put your postcode in to let Boris know.”

But anyone who inputs their personal data into this online form will also be letting the Conservatives know a lot more about them than just that they want more police on their local beat. In small print the website notes that those clicking submit are also agreeing to the party processing their data for its full suite of campaign purposes — as contained in the expansive terms of its Privacy Policy mentioned above.

So, basically, it’s another data grab…

Political microtargeting was of course core to the online modus operandi of the disgraced political data firm, Cambridge Analytica, which infamously paid an app developer to harvest the personal data of millions of Facebook users back in 2014 without their knowledge or consent — in that case using a quiz app wrapper and Facebook’s lack of any enforcement of its platform terms to grab data on millions of voters.

Cambridge Analytica paid data scientists to turn this cache of social media signals into psychological profiles which they matched to public voter register lists — to try to identify the most persuadable voters in key US swing states and bombard them with political messaging on behalf of their client, Donald Trump.

Much like the Conservative Party is doing, Cambridge Analytica sourced data from commercial partners — in its case claiming to have licensed millions of data points from data broker giants such as Acxiom, Experian, Infogroup. (The Conservatives’ privacy policy does not specify which brokers it pays to acquire voter data.)

Aside from data, what’s key to this type of digital political campaigning is the ability, afforded by Facebook’s ad platform, for advertisers to target messages at what are referred to as ‘lookalike audience’ — and do so cheaply and at vast scale. Essentially, Facebook provides its own pervasive surveillance of the 2.2BN+ users on its platforms as a commercial service, letting advertisers pay to identify and target other people with a similar social media usage profile to those whose contact details they already hold, by uploading their details to Facebook.

This means a political party can data-mine its own supporter base to identify the messages that resonant best with different groups within that base, and then flip all that profiling around — using Facebook to dart ads at people who may never in their life have clicked ‘Submit — and see more‘ on a Tory webpage but who happen to share a similar social media profile to others in the party’s target database.

Facebook users currently have no way of blocking being targeted by political advertisers on Facebook, nor indeed no way to generally switch off microtargeted ads which use personal data to select marketing messages.

That’s the core ethical concern in play when Denham talks about the vital need for voters in a democracy to have transparency and control over what’s done with their personal data. “Without a high level of transparency – and therefore trust amongst citizens that their data is being used appropriately – we are at risk of developing a system of voter surveillance by default,” she warned last year.

However the Conservative Party’s privacy policy sidesteps any concerns about its use of microtargeting, with the breeze claim that: “We have determined that this kind of automation and profiling does not create legal or significant effects for you. Nor does it affect the legal rights that you have over your data.”

The software the party is using for online campaigning appears to be NationBuilder: A campaign management software developed in the US a decade ago — which has also been used by the Trump campaign and by both sides of the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign (to name a few of its many clients).

Its privacy policy shares the same format and much of the same language as one used by the Scottish National Party’s yes campaign during Scotland’s independence reference, for instance. (The SNP was an early user of NationBuilder to link social media campaigning to a new web platform in 2011, before going on to secure a majority in the Scottish parliament.)

So the Conservatives are by no means the only UK political entity to be dipping their hands in the cookie jar of social media data. Although they are the governing party right now.

Indeed, a report by the ICO last fall essentially called out all UK political parties for misusing people’s data.

Issues “of particular concern” the regulator raised in that report were:

the purchasing of marketing lists and lifestyle information from data brokers without sufficient due diligence around those brokers and the degree to which the data has been properly gathered and consented to;

a lack of fair processing information;

the use of third-party data analytics companies with insufficient checks that those companies have obtained correct consents for use of data for that purpose;

assuming ethnicity and/or age and combining this with electoral data sets they hold, raising concerns about data accuracy;

the provision of contact lists of members to social media companies without appropriate fair processing information and collation of social media with membership lists without adequate privacy assessments

The ICO issued formal warnings to 11 political parties at that time, including warning the Conservative Party about its use of people’s data.

The regulator also said it would commence audits of all 11 parties starting in January. It’s not clear how far along it’s got with that process. We’ve reached out to it with questions.

Last year the Conservative Party quietly discontinued use of a different digital campaign tool for activists, which it had licensed from a US-based add developer called uCampaign. That tool had also been used in US by Republican campaigns including Trump’s.

Campaign tool supplied to UK’s governing party by Trump-Pence app dev quietly taken out of service — thanks to GDPR

As we reported last year the Conservative Campaigner app, which was intended for use by party activists, linked to the developer’s own privacy policy — which included clauses granting uCampaign very liberal rights to share app users’ data, with “other organizations, groups, causes, campaigns, political organizations, and our clients that we believe have similar viewpoints, principles or objectives as us”.

Any users of the app who uploaded their phone’s address book were also handing their friends’ data straight to uCampaign to also do as it wished. A few months late, after the Conservative Campaigner app vanished from apps stores, a note was put up online claiming the company was no longer supporting clients in Europe.